Means for automatically and intermittently feeding blanks of cardboard or similar sheet material



Oct. 2, 1951 DANIELS 2,569,976

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTERMITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS 0F CARDBOARD 0R SIMILAR SHEET MATERIAL FilEd Sept. 20, 1947 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 fnyenfar Ham/s film-Mom Dan/Em 1951 F. K. DANIELS 2,569,976

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTERMITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS OF CARDBOARD 0R SIMILAR SHEET MATERIAL Filed Sept. 20, 1947 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Oct. 2,1951 A K DANIELS 76 F. MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTERMITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS OF CARDBOARD OR SIMILARSHEET MATERIAL Filed Sept. 20, 1947 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 (gent-r Oct. 2, 1951 F K DANIELS 2,559,975

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTERMITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS OF CARDBOARD OR SIMILAR SHEET MATERIAL Filed Sept. 20, 194'? 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 A fnvenfor finrms/fivwraeoflmvru A fffeirfd Oct. 2, 1951 D N s 2,569,976

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTERMITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS OF CARDBOARD OR SIMILAR SHEET MATERIAL 3 Filed Sept. 20, 194'? 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 i/ 7 L+JL 49 25 :1 (R19 24 [Mu 24 T"" Mar-Ii: Tlfi'fl T" e if. \'1i W $51 25 1* I I 28 l I 'F \v\- if A x Lb I15 542.

J [preki Patented Oct. 2, 1951 MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY AND INTER- MITTENTLY FEEDING BLANKS OF CARD- BOARD OR SIMILAR SHEET MATERIAL Flavius Kingsford Daniels, London, England, as-

signor to Vickers-Armstrongs Limited, London, England, a British company Application September 20, 1947, Serial No 775,354

In Great Britain September 26, 1946 Claims. 1 This inventionrelates to means for automatically and intermittently feeding blanks of cardboard or similar sheet material.

It is often required to feed sheet blanks of cardboard or similar material intermittently through a machine to be operated on in various ways in sequence, to produce finished blanks or articles. The speed at which these operations have to be performed usually precludes the use of positive means for moving the blank from one position to another, and resort must be had to means depending on frictional grip of the material. Any marking of the surface of the material is also usually inadmissible or very undesirable. In the simplest and most usual form such means comprise rollers or discs adapted to grip the material, either positively or resiliently, the discs or rollers revolving continuously or intermittently in the appropriate direction, to perform the feeding forward of the material as required. In the case of discs or rollers revolving continuously one of the cooperating rotating members of any pair must be brought directly into or out of contact with the blank as required. Further, it is almost always necessary to pro vide means for adjusting the amount of forward feed to any value between given limits. lhe feeding means described, in their various known forms, all suffer from the defect that theydo not commence the feeding of a stationary blank from a position of rest of the rollers or discs, or that the motion of the blank is uncontrolled at some point in the feed. Hence in the general case, positive feed free from slip between the blank and its feeding means with consequent wear and change of condition of the gripping surfaces, under all conditions, cannot be attained.

Whilst such known means can be made practically satisfactory for blanks of small weights, as soon as heavier weights and high speeds are required, they become unsatisfactory in practice,

and Wear and tear on the feeding mechanism becomes severe.

An object of the present invention is to overcome these defects.

According to the invention, at least one of each pair of co-operating rotary feed elements, which maybe feed discs or rollers, is given a positive intermittent rotary motion, which is preferably oscillating rotary motion, with a stationary dwell at each extremity of the rotary motion. In the one direction of rotation, positive feeding is ar ranged to take place, whilst the other direction "of rotation is not associated with feeding and is merely areturn motion. The return motion of 2 the feed disc or roller could, if required, be dispensed with by appropriate timed disconnection of the oscillating driving means, but this is constructively less simple and convenient, andcomplete oscillating motion of the rollers or discs is preferred.

In carrying the invention into effect, the amplitude of oscillation is preferably adjustable to any value between specified limits, and this must, and in the case of oscillatory motion, can, readily be done without introducing any variation in the time relationship orcharacter of the oscillatory motion. Co-operating with each oscillating feed disc or roller is a second feed disc or roller, so mounted and actuated thatit comes into and out of co-operation with its co-acting oscillating member during the periods when the latter is stationary.

Such second disc or roller is preferably brought into action non-positively i. e. through resilient pressure, but is positively withdrawn. These second co-operating feeding elements may themselves be positively. driven, but may alternatively and preferably be mounted in frictionless bearings. This combination of members, together with the character of their motions as specified, gives the conditions required to remove the defects referred to above.

Before each feeding oscillation the stationary blank is gripped by a determinate force between each pair of temporarily stationary feeding elements forming a oo-operating pair, there being usually a number of such pairs, By this means the system consisting of a blank and feeding means, is as a Whole controllably accelerated from rest. The force required to accelerate the blank without sli-pbetween the blank and feeding means, is a determinate one for any particular set of conditions, and the same is true for the deceleration to the position-of rest on completion of the required motion. If the gripping pressures and frictional forces induced thereby are such as to be slightly in excess, in total, of the resistance to motion of the blanks, then the feeding means are completely positive (i. e. non-slip) for all cases up to and including the maximum requirements. Consequently, no wear or polishing of the feeding means are possible, as no relative motion between blank and feeding means :can take place at any point of the feed motion. Further, the gripping force re quired and consequent wear and tear on the driving mechanism are reduced to the physical minimum for the requirements.

By way of illustration, the application of the invention to the automatic feed mechanism of a machine for stitching box blanks will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In these, the framework of the machine is shown in' chain dotted lines;

Figure 1 is a rear elevation showing the driv ing arrangements in particular.

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the mechanism. v

Figure 2a is an extracted detail of Figure 2 on a larger scale.

Figure 2b is a partial plan view of Figure 2a.

Figures 3 and 311 show a side elevation of the mechanism. 2-

Figure 4 is an enlarged view of a cam extracted from Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a development of the surface of the cam shown in Figure 4.

Referring to Figure l, the pulley I is continuously driven from a source of power. It has integral with it two other pulleys 2 and 3. Of these, pulley 2 is connected with and drives a clutch pulley 4 which, when the clutch is engaged, drives the means of feeding the blanks for spacing the stitches along the blank, to which further reference will be made hereinafter, and conveniently also in this case, the stitching mechanism itself. The details of the clutch formno part of the present invention and are not shown in the accompanying drawings. Pulley 3 is connected to and drives continuously a pulley 5 on a shaft 6 driving the means for feeding the. blanks on first entering the machine into the position for driving the first stitch, and also the eiecting means to remove the previously stitched blank, in the manner now to be described.

The pulley 5 is secured to the shaft 6 and has adjacent to it a pair of opposed but otherwise similar cams I, 8, also secured to the shaft 6 (see also Figure 3). The cams, the contour of which is shown in dotted lines in Figure 1, engage a cam roller 9 mounted at the lower end of a rocking lever l0, pivoted at I I.

Adjustability of the pivot centre is provided by the bracket l2, the relative vertical position 1 of which can be varied and set by the screw clamp 13. The u per end of the lever H! is connected by links M and the pin IE to a toothed 'rack IS, the motion of this rack being therefore a reciprocating one in a horizontal direction, the am litude of which may be initially set b adjusting the bracket 2, but the time period of which is always fixed by cams I, 8. The cams 8, are so designed that there is a dwell, or stationary period, at each change of direction of motion. Meshing with the rack I6 are two inions I1, I8, attached to shafts I9, 2!), respectively. S aft I9 carries at its forward end a pair of feed discs 2|, the function of which is to f ed forward the entering blank to the position required for driving the first stitch. Shaft 28 carries at its forward end a pair of delivery discs 22, only one being shown in Figure 3 to avoid confusion. The motion of both pairs of discs, being derived from the rack II, is oscillatory with a stationary dwell at each reversal of rotational motion.

Re errin ow more particularly to Figures 2 and 311, working in conjunction with the feed and delivery discs are pressure rollers 23, between which and, the discs the blanks are to be gripped. One pressure rolleris shown for each disc, it being understood that one pressure roller and the delivery disc referred to above have been' omitted from Figure 3a for the sake of clearness. The pressure rollers 23 are carried at the ends of levers 24, 24a, secured to shafts 25, 25a, suitably disposed relative to the feed and delivery discs. Also secured to these shafts are levers 26, 21,which are linked together by the freely pivoted link 28.

The lever 21 carries near its lower end a cam roller 29, which co-operates with the cam 30 secured to the shaft 6. When cam roller 29 moves to the left (Figure 2) all four pressure rollers move upwards simultaneously under the influence of compression springs 3|. The times at which the closing and opening of the pressure rollers take place relative to the oscillatory motion of the feed and delivery discs is controlled by the cam 33 in such a manner that the closing and opening take place respectively during alternate stationary dwell periods of the disc motion.

It is to be understood that all the elements so far mentioned, except the pressure rollers and their connections, are continuously performing their prescribed motions when pulley I is revolving under power. For the purpose of initiating a controlled sequence of operation, the pressure rollers 23 and their connections have subsidiary controls in addition to cam 30 as shown in Figure 2, which represents the starting position for a sequence. These subsidiary controls, forming no part of the present invention, are not referred to in detail, but their function will be briefly indicated.

To initiate a sequence of operations, means are provided, but not shown in the drawings, whereby the insertion of a blank between the feed discs 2| and their co-operating pressure rollers 23 actuates the said subsidiary controls, which causes both sets of pressure rollers to co-act with their respective discs under the'influence of the cam 30 and springs 3| during the period of dwell prior to the forward oscillation of the discs 2| and 22, the rollers then closing to grip the blank. Two simultaneous actions now take place.

The inserted blank is carried forward bythe feed discs 2| to the position for inserting the first stitch, and the previously stitched container is ejected by the delivery discs 22. Since the feed and delivery discs have a precisely similar oscillatory motion derived from the rack l6, this motion must in both cases be one of acceleration and deceleration with a point of maximum peripheral velocity. The delivery discs preferably have part of their periphery relieved as at 22c so as to release the blank being ejected.

the stitching and stitch spacing operations which now follow no further movement of the pressure rollers 23 takes place even though cam 30 is continuously revolving on shaft 6. This condition of the mechanism is due to the influence of the subsidiary controls above referred to which maintain cam roller 23 out of Working contact with cam 30 until the stitchingoperations have been ing mechanisms.

mounted on "the clutch shaft 4 I.

spacing feed sectors (Figures 2 and 3).

' completed and a fresh :blank hasil'beeni inserted. :The.said:controls thenpperatetto'allow'cam roller 4 229 :to co-tact with cam 3ll, thusifinitiating a new sequence of operations beginning with the ini- .tial forward feedof the new blank and the ejecctioniof theold one,and so ones described above.

,pressure rollers rise as already described, the end of 1ever..32 rises and engages with a recess 33 in .link34 which .ispulled .into engagement by means of the spring .35 acting through the two-armed lever 36 pivoted at .31 and the link 33. The-upper I end of the link 34 is attached to a clutch bolt 39 'which controls a clutch (not shown) for engaging the driveof the stitch spacing. and stitch- Upon the opening ofthe pressure rollers 23 at the end of 'theworking stroke of the discs 2|, 22, .as already described, the end of *thelever c2 descends carryingwith it the link Maud consequently "theclutch bolt 59,which en- 'gages the clutch thus putting into action the "stitching and stitch spacing mechanisms, the

former being arranged to drive a stitch at the commencement of the revolution of the stitching cycle, i. e. before further movement of the blank lias taken place. "The remainder of the revolution of this cycle is available for moving the blank intermittently between insertion of the -stitches to obtain the determined stitch spacing.

lFor the 'latter'purpose .aucam 4!i (Figure 2) is The side view of this cam does not appear in Figure 3, but a side view on .a larger scale is shown in Figure 4.

The development of the cam surface iszshown in Figure 5. The cam engages the nose 42 of a cranked lever 43, 44, pivoted in the frame of the machine at 45 and shown separately in Figures Zaand 2b.

The lower arm 44 .of the lever is connected by ,a .freely pivoted link 46 to a slider 41 which is constrained to reciprocate horizontally and which occurs at the end of each half oscillation before motion in the reverse direction commences.

Figure 5 shows how the dwell periods occur in a 'single'revolution of the cam 40.

Secured to shaft 49 and suitably disposed relative to the feed and delivery discs are the stitch The forward oscillation of these is arranged-to start immediately upon the completion of the insertion of a stitch. The actual mechanismfor :driving the stitch is not shown, but it will be understood that this mechanism is driven by shaft 4| and that sectors so are timed by cam 49 tomcve after the first stitch has been driven. Working in conjunction with these feed sectors are pressure rollers 5| carried in the lovers "52 which are secured to the shaft 53. At the other end of the shaft 53 (Figure 1) is secured a lever 54 which is connected by a link 55 to one arm of a lever 55 pivoted on the framing at5'l-and carrying on its other arm a cam roller 58 co-acting "with a cam 59 secured to :the clutch :shaft 4|.

This cam TCOl'ltI'OISthC opening and'clcsing ofthe pressure rollers 5i mounted'in the levers 52, the closing force .being provided by springs 50 (Figures 2 and 3).

As it is desirable to vary the pitch of the stitches, the connection of link 46 is adjustable .along the arm 44 as shown in Figure 2b, this being additional to the adjustment of sector 48 already described. By this means the amplitude of the oscillatory motion of thespacing 'feedsectors 50 may be varied without altering the period of the oscillation. The opening and closing "of the pressure rollers 51 relative to the feed sectors takes place during the periods when. the latter are stationary, this synchronism being achieved by the relative timing of the cams 40 and 59 to this end.

The clutch driving the stitching and stitch spacing mechanism is preferably thrown out of action by independent means, after therequired number of stitching operations have been performed. A self-contained mechanism for this purpose, which can be pre-set to give the required number of operations, is the subject of a contemporary invention and is the subject'of 0111' British patent specification No. 645,939. For the purpose of the present invention, any means may be utilised for this purpose, which restores the clutch connections after the completion of the required number of operations, to their original condition, before another blank is fed to the machine.

In the appended claims the expression rotary feeding elements includes discsprollers, andnin general any rotaryelement Whose working surface is or describes a surface of revolution ora part thereof, such as a segment, whether the whole or :only apart of the surface of revolution comes into contact with the workpiece.

I claim:

:1. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, one vof the said elements having 'a fixed axis of rotation and the other of said elements being a ,pressure roller whoseshaft is mounted on a support movable towards and away from the said fixed axis, means for positively driving said first element to perform intermittent rotary movements about .saidfixedaxis, said .positivedriving means com- .prisinga rack and pinion gear connected to said first feeding element and a cam mechanism for reciprocating said rack with a stationary dwell period before each change of direction, means for controlling the motion of said pressure roller to and from its associated feeding element, and

pressure roller is caused to apply gripping pressure to the work during a stationary dwell period, to maintain the pressure during'the ensuing feed motion of the work, and to remove the pressure in the next succeeding stationary dwell period afterthe feeding elements have been brought'to rest.

.2. Mechanism according to claim 1, including an oscillating lever connected between the first 'ofsaiid cam mechanisms and the rack, said oscil- .lat'ing lever having .antadjustable pivot for varying the amplitude of oscillation of said lever.

' :3. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, .apair :of rotary :Iee'ding elements adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, one of said feedingelements being positively driven to perform intermittent rotary motion with a stationary dwell period before and after each rotary movement and the other feeding element being a pressure roller mounted on a movable support and -movable into and out of engagement with the Work during the said stationary dwell periods, a

driven cam shaft, lever means cooperating with fv cams on said driven shaft for imparting the said .respective motions to said pair of feeding ele- --ments,ra second pair of rotary feeding elements also adapted to receive and feed forward work therebetween and disposed adjacent said first pair of elements, an actuating cam shaft for the second pair of elements, lever means co-operating with cams on the latter shaft for imparting motion to said second pair of elements, a clutch for controlling said actuating cam shaft, and .clutch operating means connected between said clutch and the pressure roller of said first pair ,of elements, said clutch operating means being timed to engage said clutch and cause said second pair of feeding elements to come into operation during the stationary dwell period within which the pressure roller of the first pair of feeding elements is removed from the workpiece,

4. In mechanism for'automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, one of said feeding elements being positively driven to perform intermittent rotary motion with a stationary dwell period before and after each rotary movement and the other feeding element being a pressure roller mounted on a movable support and movable into and out of engagement with the work during the said stationary dwell'periods,

a driven cam shaft, lever means co-operating -with cams on said driven shaft for imparting the said respective motions to said pair of feeding elements, and to cause the pressure roller to apply gripping pressure to the work during a stationary dwell period, to maintain the pressure during the ensuing feed motion of the work, and to remove the pressure in the next succeeding stationary dwell period after the feed elements and the work have been brought to rest, a second pair of rotary feeding elements the axes of which are substantially parallel to and laterally offset from the axes of the first mentioned pair of feeding elements, said second pair of elements also being adapted to receive and feed forward the work therebetween, an actuating cam shaft for said second pair of elements, lever means cooperating with cams on said actuating shaft for imparting motion to said second pair of elements to cause the latter to receive and feed the work, a clutch for controlling said actuating cam shaft, a clutch bolt for said clutch, a latch device on said clutch bolt, a lever mounted to move with the pressure roller support of said first pair of feeding elements, said lever being engageable with said latch device so that when the latter pressure roller is displaced from the work during a stationary dwell period of said first pair of feeding elements the clutch is engaged to produce actuation of said second pair of feeding elements.

' 5. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, one of said feeding elements being positively driven to per- 7 form iritermittent rotary motion with a stationary dwell period before and after each rotary movement and the other feeding element being a pressure roller mounted on a movable support and movable into and out of engagement with the i work during the said stationary dwell periods, a

on said separate cam shaft for imparting motion to said second pair of feeding elements to cause the latter to receive and feed the work, a clutch for controlling the said separate cam shaft, and

clutch operating means connected between said clutch and the pressure roller of said first pair of feeding elements, said clutch operating means being timed to engage said clutch and cause said second pair of feeding elements to come into operation during the stationary dwell period within which the pressure roller of said first pair of feeding elements is removed from the work.

6. Mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, comprising at least two pairs of rotary feeding elements each pair being adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, and each pair consisting of a roller positively driven to perform intermit tent rotary motion with a stationary dwell period before and after each rotary movement and a non-positively driven pressure roller mounted on an axis movable with respect to said first roller so as to apply a gripping pressure to the work in a stationary dwell period before rotary motion is imparted tothe said first roller to advance the work, to sustain the pressure while the advance of the work takes place, and to remove the pressure in the next succeeding dwell period after the feeding elements have been brought to rest, separate shafts for driving the respective pairs of rollers, a clutch for controlling the shaft of one pair of rollers, and clutch operating means connected between said clutch and the pressure roller of the other pair and operated by the latter pressure roller .to engage said clutch and cause said one pair of rollers to come into operation during the stationary dwell period of said otherpair, within which period said latter pres sure roller is removed from gripping relation with the work. 7

7. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently-feeding sheet material, the combination of a pair of rotar feeding elements adapted to receive the work therebetween, means for posihtively'driving at least oneof said feeding elements to perform intermittent rotary motion, said positive driving means comprising a continuously driven shaft and a cammechanism which connects said driven shaft and a shaft of the positively driven element, said cam mechanism causing the latter element to perform intermittent rotary movements separated by stationary dwell periods, each intermittent movement consisting of an acceleration from rest and a deceleration to rest, pressure applying means, and a separate cam mechanism operatively connected to the firstmentioned cam mechanism for driving the pressure applying means in timed relationship with said positively driven feeding element to apply a determinate gripping pressure through the feeding elements to the work in one of said stationary dwell periods, to maintain said pressure during the next ensuing rotary movement, and to release said gripping pressure in a succeeding dwell period.

8. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, the combination of a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work therebetween, means for positively driving at least one of said feeding elements to perform intermittent rotary movements separated by stationary dwell periods, said positive driving means comprising a continuously driven shaft and a driving gear transforming the continuous motion of said driven shaft into intermittent motion of the shaft of said positively driven feeding element of which gear the components are accelerated from a position of rest in one of said stationary dwell periods and decelerated to a position of rest in the next succeeding stationary dwell period, pressure applying means, a cam mechanism operatively connected to said positive driving means for driving the pressure applying means in timed relationship with said positively driven feeding element to apply a determinate gripping pressure through the feeding elements to the work in the first of said stationary periods, to maintain the said pressure during the ensuing rotary movement of the feeding elements, and to release said gripping pressure in a succeeding dwell period.

9. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, the combination of a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work therebetween, means for positively driving at least one of said feeding elements to perform intermittent rotary movements separated by stationary dwell periods, said positive driving means comprising a continuously driven shaft, a cam on said shaft having two stationary dwell sections, a cam follower lever and a rack and pinion gear connected to said lever, pressure applying means, a second cam on said driven shaft, lever means connected between said second cam and said pressure applying means, said second cam having sections which cause said lever means to drive the pressure applying means in timed relationship with said positively driven feeding element to apply a determinate gripping pressure through the feeding elements to the work in one of said stationary dwell periods, to maintain said pressure during the next ensuing rotary movement of said feeding elements and to release said gripping pressure in a succeeding dwell period.

10. In mechanism for automatically and intermittently feeding sheet material, a pair of rotary feeding elements adapted to receive the work between opposite surfaces thereof, one of said feeding elements having its axis of rotation fixed with respect to the direction of feed and the other of said feeding elements being mounted for bodily movement in a direction towards and away from said fixed axis, means for positively driving said first rotary feeding element to perform regular oscillatory movements about said fixed axis with a stationary dwell period before each change of direction, each of said oscillatory movements consisting of an acceleration from rest in one of said stationary dwell periods and a deceleration to rest in the next succeeding stationary dwell period, means operatively connected to the drive means of said first feeding element, for bodily moving the other feeding element of said pair intermittently towards and away from the axis of said first feeding element during said stationary dwell periods to apply a gripping pressure to the work in a stationary dwell period before commencement of a half oscillation, to sustain the pressure during the ensuing half oscillation in which forward feed of the work takes place, and to remove the pressure in the next succeeding stationary dwell period after the feeding elements have been brought to rest.

FLAVIUS KINGSFORD DANIELS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 762,055 Hibbard June 7, 1904 1,060,276 Moore Apr. 29, 1913 1,947,015 Littell Feb. 13, 1934 2,006,040 Crane June 25, 1935 2,274,834 Ira Mar. 3, 1942 2,330,119 Gifian Sept. 21, 1943 

